Before legislation can be considered in the House, a rule must be adopted to govern debate on the matter. Rules are drafted by the House Rules Committee which acts as a functionary of the majority party leadership. The topic of this vote was a rule governing debate on legislation which would extend welfare benefits through March 31, 2003 and federal unemployment benefits through January 2003. Progressives opposed the rule because, in their view, the underlying legislation failed to provide adequate government assistance for the jobless and the poor. Progressives raised concerns that the bill would only extend unemployment benefits for current recipients and not those whose sixteen-week unemployment benefits have expired. In the view of Progressives, the jobless workers whose unemployment benefits have expired also deserved federal assistance. The rule governing debate was adopted on a 245-137 vote.